December 14, 2011
Fremantle, AUS
For most fleets racing today, the courses were very shifty and tricky, but the match racers got a great surprise. After a very long postponement, we were moved out of the river to sail in steadier winds. And steadier they were! relative to the inner harbor course on which we have been racing for the last week and a half. With the wind having more of a runway, the race committee could keep up with the 20-30 degree shifts over the normal-sized race course, and were able to get the races off very quickly. We were up against Team Souter, AUS, in today's quarterfinals and came out on top winning the series 3-0.
Fremantle, AUS
For most fleets racing today, the courses were very shifty and tricky, but the match racers got a great surprise. After a very long postponement, we were moved out of the river to sail in steadier winds. And steadier they were! relative to the inner harbor course on which we have been racing for the last week and a half. With the wind having more of a runway, the race committee could keep up with the 20-30 degree shifts over the normal-sized race course, and were able to get the races off very quickly. We were up against Team Souter, AUS, in today's quarterfinals and came out on top winning the series 3-0.
Photo: copyright Paul Kane/Perth 2011
Our closest race with Nicky was the final race. We ended up with a penalty coming out of the dial up, so we knew that we had a lot of hard work ahead of us if we were to still win the race. We got off the line on the favoured side and led up the first beat. Halfway up, however, she wound inside of us and we had to tack and duck her (ie she had passed us). Eventually, as we drew near the top mark, we were able to get the lead back. Downwind, we sailed it just right and pinned her to the right of us, holding her past the leeward mark. This gave us enough room to spin our penalty but she just squeezed inside of us at the mark. We nailed a great rounding, rolled right into a tack, and then came back again on starboard, enabling us to force them to leebow us (tack under us) and then we held them out to the layline. We now had the lead and were able to extend into the first shift and puff downwind and went on to win the race and thus the series. Tomorrow we will race Team Skudina, RUS, in the semi-finals.
We are looking forward to racing again tomorrow. We are again on a different course, but one that is outside of the river.
We are looking forward to racing again tomorrow. We are again on a different course, but one that is outside of the river.
You can check on the regatta website for results and a live blog: Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships (http://www.perth2011.com/) (FYI: Perth/Freemantle is 13hr ahead of EST in the States or UTC+8hr)
We would very much like to thank our Title Sponsor, Maclaren, our Gold Level Sponsors 11th Hour Racing and Laser Performance, and our Bronze Level Sponsors Carmeuse, Trinity Yachts, Chicago Match Race Center and Sperry Top-Siderfor their continued support of our campaign for the 2012 Olympic Games. We would also like to thank US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) and its sponsors for their continued support. Also, thank you to our private donors. Please remember that any and all donations/contributions to our campaign should be made payable directly to either The Sailing Foundation of New York (tax deductible) memo'd Anna Tunnicliffe, or to Anna Tunnicliffe.
Sail Hard,
And as usual, don't forget, email us your questions and comments. We love getting them and sharing our love of sailing and women's match racing.
Anna: 4D's: "Dream,Desire,Dedication,Discipline" TM
Team Maclaren: 3P's: Passion...Performance...Perfection...TM
